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Biomedical primate research. Soviet surgeons operating on a monkey in 1969 at the Institute of Experimental Pathology and Therapy, Sukhumi, Georgia. This institute, which was opened in 1927, was the world's first primate testing centre. It was used for behavioural and medical experiments, and made groundbreaking medical discoveries as well as training monkeys for space travel. Work was carried out here on the Soviet polio vaccine. The director from 1959 to 1992 was Boris Lapin. The outbreak of war in 1992 led to the main institute being re-established in Adler, Russia, though the centre in Georgia still carries out research.